THE manifesto pledge by new London mayor Boris Johnson to cut staff at the Greater London Authority is being fulfilled. Five senior posts held by women are to be axed in the mayor’s office, including that of Emma Beal, mother of two of Ken Livingstone’s children.

Another departure will have a different impact. Anthony Mayer, GLA chief executive since late 2000, leaves this autumn to become chairman of the government’s new social housing regulator, the Office for Tenants and Social Landlords.

Mayer, who earns £183,000 a year, was chief executive throughout the Livingstone era. “It will be a wrench to leave, but I’m 62 and it’s time to go.”

He oversees an authority staff of 650 and an £11 billion budget for the wider GLA group, which includes the police, Transport for London and the London Development Agency. He said his job was more like being a permanent secretary, but added: “Whenever there’s been any conflict that needed resolving. I nearly always got involved.

“My successor’s biggest challenge will be getting things up and running and then facilitating the mayor’s agendas – addressing transport problems, the Olympics and making the organisation more cost-effective.”

Mayer’s Mondays have been reserved for meetings with directors, management team and the mayor.

The rest of the week? “Anything and everything as it comes up.”

One of the GLA’s highest profile weeks was in 2005 when winning the 2012 Olympics was followed by the 7/7 bombings.

“On the Thursday I had the huge adrenalin rush of the win, hearing about it on my way to fly to Shanghai for a conference. I heard of the bombings at 9 in the morning in Shanghai. I had this sense of horrible shock and then this huge difficulty of using the mobile-phone system to enact all the trusted and well-tried systems of response. I was very proud of all those colleagues who did so well to get the recovery system going so quickly.”

How does Boris Johnson differ from his predecessor?

“One of the things about Mr Livingstone was he was a great managerial politician,” said Mayer.

“He knew how to operate all the levers. What Mr Johnson has made clear is that he is going to want to be absolutely at the forefront of leading London, but wants to have a first deputy mayor to implement his policies.”

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